The Russellville Junior High West Whirlwinds and head coach Joey Jones have had their share of disappointments with six losses to open the season.

However, the West squad (1-6, 1-2) shook all that off and came up with maybe its best performance of the year in a 14-6 victory over the previously-unbeaten Searcy Cubs Thursday night at Cyclone Stadium.

"It feels great to finally get a win," a relieved Jones said. "I'm so proud of these kids, and they've worked hard and never laid down."

The Whirlwins'd defense gave the Cubs' offense problems all night, causing first-place Searcy to get rattled.

"The defense was great tonight," Jones said. "We were really able to shut them down and take them out of their game. That kind of forced them to lose their composure begining late in the first half."

The most evident such instance was when the Cubs were forced into a fourth-and-41 situation after seeming to self-destruct with personal-foul and procedure penalties.

No points were scored until midway through the second quarter when Blake Humphrey - who threw two touchdowns - rolled out to the left side and found Josh Cloud in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown with 4:26 left in the first half. Humphrey hit Nathaniel Clark on the ensuing two-point conversion attempt to put Russellville West up 8-0.

The drive covered 91 yards in only six plays - highlighted by Kyler Lee running for 34 yards on the first play of the drive and David Thomas taking a screen pass 41 yards three plays later.

Searcy answered the Whirlwind score with one of its own. After quarterback Jason Felton hit Josh Wood on a 39-yard pass play down to the Russellville 2, J.T. Fisher found paydirt on the ensuing play. The two-point try was intercepted, keeping Russellville West ahead, 8-6, with 1:11 left before the break.

"We seemed to kind of suprise them (Cubs) by the way we came out in that first half," Jones said. "I've never seen as much confidence out of our team as I saw at halftime."

Searcy's offense had the ball first to open the second half, but fumbled its chances away five plays later, giving the Whirlwinds the ball at the 5:08 mark in the third quarter.

Humphrey hit Nathan Cathcart on a perfect strike with the West facing a third and long to keep the ensuing drive going. After nice runs by Lee and Thomas, Humphrey and Cathcart hooked up again on a perfect lob in the end zone to seal the victory. The PAT was blocked, leaving the score 14-6 with 6:28 remaining in the game.

Searcy was never able to make a comeback, although converting on a fourth-and-long play late with time winding down. But Dustin Hines intercepted a pass for the West to put a stop to any comeback attempt.